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Legacy of Michael Servetus: Radical Change in the Thought Pattern, Freedom of Conscience, and the Switch to the Humanistic Social Moral

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Legacy of Michael Servetus: Radical Change in the Thought Pattern, Freedom of Conscience, and the Switch to the Humanistic Social Moral The Legacy of Michael Servetus: Radical Change in the Thought Pattern, Freedom of Conscience, and the Switch to the Humanistic Social Moral Paradigm Marian Hillar Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies Center for Philosophy and Socinian Studies Website: http://www.socinian.org Paper for the conference, The Heritage of Western Humanism, Skepticism, and Freethought. Toward a Reasonable World. Institute for the Study of American Religion. San Diego, CA, September 16-18, 2011. Freedom of conscience is every man’s natural right. John Locke Thomas Jefferson To uphold a tenet that contradicts reason is to undermine one’s credibility; to contradict empirical evidence is a still greater fallacy. Buddhist dictum 2 Prologue The United States is probably a unique country in that it was founded on a specific ideology. It was a coincidence of many factors that allowed the founding fathers to introduce a humanistic social moral paradigm which became the basis for the Constitution and moral ethos of the country. The new paradigm was developed slowly and many thinkers, political activists, and movements were involved. The whole process culminated in the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century but it was initiated in the sixteenth century with the dramatic events of the Reformation. Among the unsung heroes who contributed most in the initial phase, one has to list Michael Servetus, a lonely Spanish biblical scholar, philosopher, and scientist who brought together what was best in the cultural renewal of the Renaissance and in the attempt at the moral renewal programmed by those later described as Radical Reformers. He discovered through the study of the bible, which was made possible by Reformation trends that its truth contrasted with official Christian practice and official doctrinal formulations. He saw that Christianity was corrupt morally and ideologically, and, inspired by the rising spirit of reform, he envisioned a plan to restore Christianity to its original simplicity and integrity as suggested by Erasmus (1466-1536).1 The German theologian Adolf von Harnack thus described the importance of Servetus's role in the history of human thought: "… the Spanish thinker who is distinguished also for his profound piety. In him was found the fusion of all that was best in sixteenth century development if one puts aside the evangelical 3 Reformation. Servetus equally distinguished himself as a learned experimenter, as a critical thinker, as a speculative philosopher, and as a Christian reformer in the best sense of the word."2 Auguste Dide, the French Senator and president of the International Committee for the Monument to Michael Servetus, in his inaugural speech at the unveiling of a statue to Servetus in Annemasse in 1908 said: "The day when Servetus, tortured, captive, and facing death, opposed the arrogant absolutism and pride of his persecutors and executioners, with the doctrine of the never ending progress, Servetus placed himself in league with the emancipators who would create a new secular Europe and who prepared the French Revolution."3 Undoubtedly the title of his major work The Restoration of Christianity is reminiscent of the proposal by Erasmus which was based on three major premises:4 1. studying the original texts of the Gospels, the first apostolic writings, and the first Christian theologians still operating in the Greco-Roman social paradigm as the source of religious assertions; 2. that sophisticated theological speculations should be abandoned; 3. that this was necessary in order to reduce the religious beliefs to a small number of fundamental and essential doctrines. While Erasmus satisfied his interests with philological studies and made no effort at reforming the old system of thought, Servetus, in the realm of intellectual inquiry, demanded a radical reevaluation of the entire ideological religious system of assertions and dogmas imposed on Western Europe since the fourth century. Servetus’s theological inquiry initiated the study of scriptural 4 tradition in an attempt to uncover the real religious doctrines contained in it. In the process he developed a new more humane religion and a new understanding of divinity and divine matters closer to the realities of the human condition. It evolved eventually into biblical Unitarianism and in modern times into Universalist Unitarianism.5 This is one major legacy of Servetus which is important for the evolution of religion. At the intellectual level it led to the development of critical biblical studies and to comparative studies of religions of the nineteenth century with great consequences for the modern understanding of religion. Today biblical scholars confirm the discovery of Servetus and his universal understanding of the divinity.6 Philosophers and religious scholars develop further the Servetian understanding of the divinity which manifests itself and evolves in a historical process into the new concepts of process theology.7 Others, however, reject the ontological concept of divinity but recognize the importance of human values and make them the center of a true religion, a religion of the “Highest Values” or secular Humanism as the one propounded by a philosopher of religion, Stanisław Cieniawa.8 The other legacy has been consequential for the development of the Enlightenment and recovery of the ancient humanistic social paradigm. It concerns the function of society at the moral level. Servetus recognized the full potential of human nature, its capabilities and rationality. Thus he demanded freedom of intellectual inquiry, thought, conscience, and expression that was denied to millions on doctrinal theological grounds. At the same time he remained deeply devotional. He believed in a personal divinity to whom access was granted 5 to every believer without an ecclesiastical intermediary. By his sacrifice Servetus set into motion a process of change in the entire social moral paradigm and recovery of the long lost humanistic principles. Establishment of a paradigm of ecclesiastical dominion. Servetus’s role as the central figure in history who initiated the process of recovering the social humanistic paradigm becomes obvious if we put it in historical perspective. Greco-Roman pre-Christian society enjoyed toleration, freedom of religion, of conscience, and of thought. The ancient western world did not have the concept of "heresy" or "heretic." Greco-Roman society tolerated all religions and did not impose restrictions on free thought. Acts of intolerance were rare, and if they occurred, they were never justified by deviations from one doctrine or another. This was due to the lack of a state religion and state sanctioned theological doctrine though the people and the centers of power were highly religious. All this was dramatically changed with the advent of state supported Christianity. Ever since the fourth century Christianity became an institution of organized clergy and was fused with the political power in the Roman Empire and later in the rest of Western Europe.9 Christianity triumphed only because it evolved into a rigid, totalitarian theocracy. The Emperors Valentinian II and Theodosius I established on February 28, 380, the Christian religion of the Roman pontiff as obligatory in the Empire declaring those who would not embrace it “demented and insane,” and therefore, 6 “shall be smitten first by divine vengeance and second by the retribution of Our own initiative, which We shall assume in accordance with the divine judgment” (Cod. Theod. 16.1.2). This decree may be considered an official declaration of the first forced adherence to a state religion and the official initiation of persecutions for the convictions of conscience. In a short span of time Christian emperors accomplished the elimination of free thought and the imposition of a totalitarian theocratic system so that they could congratulate themselves in 423 on a job well done: The regulations of constitutions formerly promulgated shall suppress any pagans who survive, although We now believe that there are none [left] (Cod. Theod. 16.10.22). Constantine the Great who issued an edict against them already on September 1, 326, persecuted “heretics” and schismatics from the beginning. The fundamental principle on which the persecution was based was deviation from the official state religion. Heresy was considered "a public crime, since whatever is committed against divine religion amounts to the detriment of all" (Cod. Theod. 16.5.38-39). The definition of a "heretic" left no doubt that a theocratic society could not tolerate any free thought: Those persons who may be discovered to deviate, even in a minor point of doctrine, from the tenets and path of the Catholic religion are included under the designation of heretics and must be subject 7 to the sanctions which have been issued against them (Arcadius and Honorius, September 3, 395; Cod. Theod. 16.5.28). In the sixth century Emperor Justinian incorporated explicitly the Catholic creed, including the doctrine of the Trinity, into Roman state law.10 Chapter 1 of Book I, entitled De Trinitate et Fide catholica, confirms establishing the Catholic faith as the official state religion and forbids any critical thought under penalty of being burned at the stake. Justinian defines faith in the Trinity in terms of the Nicaean creed ("trinitatem consubstantialem"), and ordains that any deviation from it should be punished as well as any so-called heretical views. It is interesting too, that the law promulgated in 413 declares the death penalty for the
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